In perfect Harmony with design

After many years of working as an employee, Elena Suciu decided to set up her own business in 2008. She is aiming to increase her brand portfolio and to continue to be positioned as a premium-luxury player on the Romanian interior and exterior design market.

Anca Ionescu

Elena Suciu, managing partner of Harmony Design, took her first steps in the corporate world back in 2008, when she decided to set up her own business. She graduated from the Economics Faculty, where accounting was her passion. She had worked since she was a student as an accountant at Navrom, a marine company in Constanta. After four years there, she became financial director for some small import-export firms in Constanta and also for Crewing “Bright Balkan”. But in 2001 she changed career paths and became reporting manager for Diageo, a multinational company specialized in alcoholic spirits and the owner of the Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff and Baileys premium brands.

“The next step up in my career was in 2004 when I got the ‘international assignment’ contract for Diageo. It allowed me to become coordinator of internal auditing at Diageo’s branch in Beirut, Lebanon, indefinitely,” remembers Suciu. But after one year in Lebanon she decided to come back to Romania because of the political uncertainty and armed conflict. After that she was appointed interim HR manager of Sollers Distribution, the exclusive distributor of Diageo in Romania. “In that position I had to implement a professional evaluation program in addition to a training and career planning program according to the Diageo business model,” says Suciu.

Read more about

RetuRO opens its 5th counting and sorting center in Bacău County

read more

After its implementation she decided to shift her attention to a very risky business area, accepting the position of logistics manager at Sollers Distribution. But 2008 was a tipping point for her career. “At that time some of my friends from Belgium, owners of Namgrass – a firm specialized in artificial grass – asked me to help them to participate in an exhibition in Romania, at Romexpo. Having no other option, I had to organize their participation in the trade fair,” remembers the entrepreneur. Soon afterwards she decided to obtain the exclusive rights for Romania to distribute the Namgrass brand. “That was the moment when I passed from manager status to entrepreneurship,” says the managing partner of Harmony Design.

Speaking about her current business, Suciu says that her previous professional experience helped her to understand it in its whole complexity and to identify the opportunity to build her own enterprise in 2008. “It was very useful for my business that I had had to lead a wide range of departments such as financial, human resources and logistics during my professional career,” notes Suciu.

She says that the first product she launched on the local market was ornamental artificial grass. “It was easy for me to identify the needs of the interior arrangement local market, where there is still plenty of room for versatile products such as artificial grass and high quality outdoor furniture.” One year after launching the Namgrass brand in Romania she made another great leap forward: she set up Harmony Design in 2009. Today, the company has a portfolio that includes only luxury products – international brands for outdoor furniture and accessories issued by great design houses from Europe.

She decided to set up Harmony Design for a simple reason: she was very attracted by the design concept. “My hobby of interior and exterior design was transformed into a real business. The latest trends indicate exterior design as being on top; there are plenty of design ideas and communication mediums offer us new illustrations, while international exhibitions show us new trends in exterior design and up-to-the minute technologies,” says Suciu. “I am sure that our knowledge of exterior design gets richer with each trip abroad we make. There is still plenty of space on the Romanian market for many other exterior design products.”

She adds that both furniture and accessories for outside that she has brought on the local market address the premium-luxury segment and represent the key to optimizing the small exterior space people have available. “Both from a visual and usability perspective, my products help customers in their initiative to plan and create a ‘contemporary-urban’ style for their space,” says Suciu.

As for the most difficult time her business has faced, the entrepreneur says it was the fight to keep her company profitable. If she started another firm she wouldn’t change anything. “I would probably make the current crisis disappear,” she jokes. Suciu adds that to realize the needs of the targeted market, understand the behavior of your customers and educate the public are some of the biggest challenges her business is facing at the moment.

According to Suciu her products differentiate her company from the crowd. “Our competition came from the diversification of the packages of services not from the product area. Plus, Harmony Design is the only company that exclusively markets furniture and accessories for outdoors,” says Suciu.As for the future, she intends to improve her portfolio of brands on the outdoor design market segment.